Category Archives: Sports

Tour de ski 2015

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The 2015 ski year starts with Tour de Ski 3rd – 11th of January – a part of the FIS Cross-Country World Cup that ends with a race up a downhill ski slope (!) As we write this the men have just finished five of the seven stages of the competition and the ladies are about to start their fifth. On the women’s side , there are quadruple Norwegian in the lead, sovereign Marit Björgen at the top. Petter Northug, Norway, is the leader in the men’s competition followed by Sweden’s Calle Halfvarsson , Norwegian Sundby and Russian Belov .

Finishing uphill pursuit

After the women’s 15 km freestyle pursuit today, these stages of the competition are left:

Saturday, January 10 :

Women : 10 km mass start classic freestyle
Men 15 km pursuit , classic freestyle

Sunday, January 11 :

Women : 9 km Final Climb Free technique, pursuit
Men: 9 km Final Climb Free technique, pursuit

The riders who leads the tour start the climbing , while the other , depending on their total score will start some time after. On the women’s side has Björgen over a minute and a half down to Weng in second place and looks to go towards a certain victory . The men’s competition is more uncertain since Northug , who is 7 seconds ahead of Halfvarsson, is not known to be a good climber. It will be an open and interesting finish to the race this Sunday!

The sportsyear 2015

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Sports

2014 is over and we’ve summarized the year in an earlier post. Now it’s time to look forward and see what 2015 has to offer us. We can start with the IIHF World Junior Championships in icehockey that are currently played in Canada. We’re also looking forward to the finals in Stanley Cup, Champions Hockey League, Premier League, La Liga and of course Champions League.

Sadly we won’t get to see any olympic games or large football tournaments 2015 but at Chicken Swedes we’ve listed some of the biggest events of the year:

World Men’s Handball Championship

The 24:th World Championship in handball is played in Qatar 17th of January – 1st of February. 24 teams are fighting for 16 spots in the playoffs. The biggest issue before the tournament has been Germany’s “wild card” – they got a spot in the tournament after they failed to qualify. A bit odd but we guess that’s how the world of handball currently works – old merits still count..

FIS Alpine World Ski Championships

2th -15th of February athletes from over 70 countries are fighting for the medals and we get to see a lot of downhill skiing from beautiful Vail/Beaver Creek, USA. Good stuff!

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships

The 2015 Nordic Ski Championships are held in Falun Sweden. 18th of February – 1st of March the world’s best nordic skiers will battle for gold in the swedish forests. The Norwegians have dominated the World Cup so far but we will just have to wait and see what happens when Sweden has the home crowd advantage.

UEFA 2016 Qualifiers

The qualifiers for the European Football Championship 2016 continues. We’re looking forward a lot of exciting football when it’s decided what teams will go to France in the summer of 2016.

IIHF World Championships

There are two IIHF World Championships played this spring: The ladies play in Malmö, Sweden 28th of March – 4th of April while the men play in Czech Republic 1th-17th of May. As usual, we have to see some stars from the National Hockey League in the men’s tournament. Russia won the gold last year.

Copa América

Probably the biggest football event of the year when the South American teams battle over who is the best football nation on the continent. Argentina are favourites after their silver medal in the 2014 World Cup. The tournament is played in Chile 12th of June – 4th of July.

FIFA Women’s World Cup

There’s more football this summer: The Women’s World Cup is played in Canada 6th of June – 5th of July. Japan won the tournament in 2011 after beating USA in a baffling final game that had to be decided through penalties.

World Champions in Athletics

The 15th World Championships in Athletics are held in China 29th of August – 6th of September. We are hoping for a bunch of world records and excitement when Usain Bolt and many others fight for the gold medals. The Championships are played in the same arena that were used for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Rugby World Cup

The 2015 Rugby World Cup are hosted by England 18th of September – 31st of October. The tournament is held once every fourth year and in 2011 the hosting country New Zealand won the gold beating France in the final.

World Women’s Handball Championship

In 2014 Norway won the gold medal in the Women’s European Championship, now they have the chance to go for the World Championships as well. The tournament is held in Denmark in December.

World Women’s Floorball Championship

Sweden’s men won the gold medal at home in 2014, now their women’s team have the chance to repeat that in 2015. The floorball championships are played in Finland 6th – 13th of December.

Chicken Swedes are looking forward to another exciting year filled with sports, we hope that you all are with us!

We summarize: The sports year 2014

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2014 is coming to and end and Chicken Swedes have summarized the great sports events of the year. We have supplied you with news from sports all over the world and we will continue to do so in 2015.

Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia

This year the XXII winter olympics were held in Sochi, Russia. 98 events over 15 disciplines in 7 sports were included in the 2014 games. Russia won the medal-race with 13 golds, 11 silver and 9 bronze followed by Norway with 11 golds, 5 silver and 10 bronze. Canada came third with 10 golds, 10 silvers and 5 bronze.

Speaking of Canada, at bonus-finder we have a great deal of focus on hockey and since the NHL-players can participate in the olympics since 1998 it means every 4th year means we get to see the worlds best hockey players fight to win olympic medals but also show which country is the best hockey-nation in the world. This year Canada won the gold beating a broken swedish team in the final game. Sadly the swedes were plagued by injuries and suspensions which made the final sort of an anticlimax.

In the cross-country skiing Norway was often supreme at the individual levels while Sweden won both the men’s and women’s relay.

A historic medal was awarded to Slovenia for two reasons: It was the country’s first olympic gold medal ever and it was a tie shared with Switzerland in alpine skiing. No silver was awarded.

IIHF World Championships

As usual the world championships in ice-hockey are played every spring. The tournament was played in Belarus and was pretty straightforward. Russian dominance and a revenge on Finland who beat them in the olympics: Russia won the gold, Finland silver and Sweden bronze. In 2015 the world championships are played in Czech Republic.

FIFA World Cup

After the winter olympics, FIFA World Cup is the next big event of 2014. We got to see some great football and the germans taught us all we need to know about the game. They beat Argentina in the final while Netherlands got the bronze medal. Home team Brazil failed to live up to the expectations of the fans and finished 4th. Most remarkable was their total collapse in the semi-final against Germany. Other teams that failed this tournament was England, Spain and Portugal. Read our summary from the 2014 World Cup here.

Champions League

English football isn’t what it used to be. This year only three english teams have reached the round of 16. No Liverpool, no Manchester United. Nevertheless we are looking forward to the playoffs starting in the beginning of 2015. Our top-picks for the playoffs are:

  • Chelsea
  • Real Madrid
  • Bayern Münich
  • Barcelona

2016 EURO qualifiers

The qualifiers for the 2016 UEFA championships started this fall. In group A Iceland is the biggest surprise with a 2nd place behind Czech Republic. Netherlands is chasing in third place. Group B is also a bit unexpected with Israel in top and Wales in 2nd place. Slovakia and Spain is in the top of group C while Poland and Germany is going strong in group D. England is recovering from the world cup topping group E followed by Slovenia while Romania and Northern Ireland is fighting for top positions in group F. Group G is a hornest’s nest with Austria, Sweden and Russia battling at the top while there are no real surprises in group H: Croatia and Italy have 10 points each. Denmark and Portugal is at the top of the last group, I where we most of all remember Portugal’s loss against Albania who is in 3rd place.

We are looking forward some more exciting action from the world of sports in 2015!